Chapter 48: Killing with a Borrowed Knife
At this moment, the object was in a distant orbit, revolving around Ceres at an extremely slow speed.
Under the clone’s control, the spaceship quickly approached the object and brought it aboard.
Inside the zero-gravity cabin, Li Qingsong inspected the wreckage through the clone’s eyes. He could see what appeared to be the remains of some kind of mechanical device on it.
A chill slowly crept through Li Qingsong’s heart.
’I definitely didn’t build this! Nor is it a product of Human Civilization!’
The appearance of a piece of technology near Ceres that he hadn’t created clearly meant that some other entity had been here.
’So... when? Was it before or after I arrived on Ceres? What were they doing here?’
’On a broader scale, when did they come to the Solar System? And are they connected to the disappearance of Human Civilization?’
Li Qingsong transported the wreckage to the research base on the surface of Ceres as quickly as possible.
It housed the most advanced laboratory he had at this stage. Perhaps he could figure out what kind of device it had broken off from.
After a thorough analysis, Li Qingsong stared at the conclusions, his heart growing heavier than ever before.
He had figured out what the wreckage was from.
It still had some mechanical remains on it. The technology was advanced—too advanced for Li Qingsong to replicate—but he could still discern its basic function.
It was clearly the wreckage of some kind of light-excitation device!
And it wasn’t visible light, but light of a specific wavelength in the infrared spectrum. Moreover, its total energy output was extremely high.
In other words, the light it released in that frequency band was extremely intense.
Further analysis revealed that this specific wavelength of light corresponded to the spectrum of a certain organic compound. And...
Through his years of raising and studying the strange birds, Li Qingsong had already determined that the light emitted by their favorite organic food, after being irradiated by the Sun, possessed this exact spectrum!
It fit. Everything fit together perfectly.
Those strange birds hadn’t come to Ceres by chance at all!
The strange birds probably had no intention of coming to Ceres. But just as they were approaching, a high-energy "infrared bomb" detonated in the vicinity of Ceres, releasing an intense light remarkably similar to that of a certain organic compound.
Because his technology was limited at the time, and he lacked the necessary observational capabilities, he had completely failed to notice it.
But the strange birds could!
As a result, the strange birds were led to believe that Ceres held vast quantities of the organic matter they needed, so they changed direction and headed straight for Ceres.
They had been intentionally lured here by some entity hiding in the shadows!
’That unknown entity wanted to use the flock of strange birds as a weapon to kill me!’
Controlling one of his clones, Li Qingsong suddenly looked up at the vast, boundless cosmos.
The star-dusted sky was silent and profound.
’Who is it? Who wants to harm me? And why?’
Recalling his clash with the strange birds, Li Qingsong felt a chill run down his spine.
Although the final outcome had been good, the process had been incredibly perilous.
’The slightest misstep, and everything I’ve built on Ceres would have been destroyed.’
’If I hadn’t already possessed a certain level of industrial capability to quickly forge cold weapons, if I hadn’t stockpiled a massive number of clones in advance and sacrificed them to buy time, and if I hadn’t ultimately managed to rapidly develop firearms technology, I would have been eaten clean by that flock of strange birds.’
At the same time, Li Qingsong aimed all of his space detection devices at the sky.
They were still relatively primitive, just some rather outdated telescopes, radar systems, and the like, but they were all that Li Qingsong had.
After a full scan, space remained empty. Nothing was found.
A sense of gravity unlike any he’d ever felt before settled over Li Qingsong.
’I have to accelerate technological development again. I also have to go all-in on developing military and space detection technologies.’
’Even if it’s primitive, I need to at least have some self-defense capability!’
Li Qingsong looked toward the space laboratory, whose construction had just begun.
This space laboratory was the foundation for all his future development.
Too many technologies needed to be researched in a space environment, and too many experiments had to be conducted in zero gravity.
Without it, his spaceship technology, engine technology, space detection technology, and weapons systems suitable for space combat could not be developed quickly.
After weighing his options, Li Qingsong gritted his teeth.
’I will finish the space laboratory within one year!’
For Li Qingsong, this was an incredibly ambitious goal.
According to his plans, this space laboratory would be a massive, kilometer-scale facility with a total mass of up to 1.3 million tons, far surpassing even the Deep Space Spaceship.
—Of course, this didn’t mean that Li Qingsong’s current level of technology had surpassed that of Human Civilization. Rather, the environment on Ceres was unique, allowing him to travel between the surface and orbit with extremely simple technology.
On Earth, however, launch activities were constrained by the planet’s much greater gravity and thick atmosphere, making the task immeasurably more difficult.
But even if space launch missions from Ceres were extremely simple, constructing a million-ton research base was still an immense challenge.
At present, Li Qingsong had a total of only 200 Sky-Opener I-class ships, and each ship could only transport two tons per trip.
Assuming each round trip took eight hours—which was the absolute fastest time, accounting for refueling, maintenance, loading, unloading, and the return journey—it would take nearly three years even if all 200 Sky-Opener I-class ships worked at full capacity.
When factoring in the transport of personnel and various other supplies, the total time would likely stretch to over ten years.
And that was just for transport, without even accounting for the time the actual construction would take.
’There’s no time to worry about all that! I just have to give it my all! One year. It must be finished in one year!’
Under the threat of this unknown entity, all 700,000 clones in the Ceres base complex, whose consciousnesses Li Qingsong could directly access, sprang into action.
In the communal dormitory buildings, the two million clones held in reserve were also ready to be activated at a moment’s notice.
A solemn and deadly serious atmosphere seemed to envelop the entirety of Ceres.
Li Qingsong knew that this moment was the ultimate test of all his development over the past hundred-plus years.
The construction of this space laboratory itself would involve nearly every industrial sector he had mastered and touch upon every one of his industrial capabilities.
’If that’s how it is, then bring it on!’